Tropical Cyclone Yasi has been, according to Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, the “most severe, most catastrophic storm that has ever hit our coast”. I asked Dr Andrew Ash, who is director of the CSIRO’s Climate Adaptation Flagship, if perhaps it didn’t just used to be really wet and windy before the drought and maybe we’d [...]
Signal: Cyclone Yasi
Damage from super-cyclone Yasi sends sugar prices to record high
Sugar prices broke over a three-decade high Wednesday as one of the strongest cyclones to hit Australia in a century slammed into the sugar-producing nation’s already flood-ravaged Queensland coast. Raw-sugar futures for March delivery broke 36 cents a pound in InterContinental Exchange trade, the highest price since November 1980. White sugar on London’s Liffe exchange [...]
Super cyclone Yasi almost the size of the continental U.S.
Yasi is so large it would almost cover the United States, most of Asia and large parts of Europe. This comparison, shows this storm is continental in size. The main bloc of the cyclone is 500km wide, while its associated activity, shown above in a colour-coding to match intensity, stretches over 2000km. The storm’s scale [...]
Record ocean temperatures driving Cyclone Yasi
Cyclone Yasi, a maximum category five storm, is headed for northern Queensland, and is expected to affect a region that is home to more than 400,000 people. The “monster” cyclone formed in the Pacific Ocean near the island nation of Fiji, which gave Yasi her name. Alan Sharp, national manager, tropical cyclone warning services, of [...]
Largest cyclone ever to hit Australia hours away
Mass evacuations are underway in the northeastern Australian state of Queensland in anticipation of what forecasters expect will be the largest cyclone ever to hit the continent. Yasi has intensified rapidly and currently has winds gusting up to 295 kilometers per hour (183 mph). It is expected to maintain that intensity—equivalent to a Category Five [...]
